You Only Get the 1990s Once
Now THAT was a sweet decade, followed by the roller coaster ride of the oughts. Still, as the old saying goes, at least I had my health—until 2009. Now we review the tens.
As decades unfold, 2010 to 2019 covered the spread from miserable suckery on multiple fronts to a serene stability that I have yet to take for granted. Rating ten years in football terms, I'd be 4 - 5 - 1.
Health
I entered the tens in physical therapy from my 2009 left knee surgery. (My orthopedist said I'd never run again. For six years, it looked like he was right.) But a right shoulder injury was blossoming. I began physical therapy, but would need surgery in 2011. In 2012, I developed skin cancer and required Mohs surgery on my nose. Then came 2014 and my diagnosis with prostate cancer, subsequent surgery and a number of complications. In 2016, a health upswing kicked in, interrupted by a fractured left arm in 2017, then a 2018 right knee injury unrelated to sports but not stupidity. That scrubbed running for half the year. At last, this year, running picked up again and stayed consistent
Over the decade, my weight fluctuated, with gains, slight losses, then more gains, always trending upwards. This March I peaked at 271 pounds. My chins gave my face a soft rounded appearance like mascot for a French tire company. Fortunately, with diet and exercise, I've dropped 34 pounds and start the new year with hopes of cutting another 30 in the upcoming year.
Running
Proving my orthopedist wrong motivated me in 2010. Running started out rather well. I'd taken a few lessons in chi running, read the book, cross-trained, and commenced a schedule of walking and running. In July 2010, I ran a 5k, finishing under 30 minutes for the last time. A month later, pain swelled up in the left knee. (Poor chi running form was the culprit.) I backed off running for the rest of the year, cross-trained, put on weight, then, in 2011, started building up to three miles again. That May I injured myself again. The same month I mostly walked a 5k, my last for the next five years. Running ebbed and flowed in-between operations, more injuries and depression.
In 2016, as my weight continued to climb, I committed to walking 3x a week. Eventually, I took up chi running once more, finished a 5k in April and went on to regular running 3x a week. For most of that time, I did not record my times. I figured that way I wouldn't be tempted to overtrain. I was jazzed just to be running steady again.
In 2019, I decided to record times, try and improve. My first 5k in January I averaged 14 minute miles. My last 5k in November, I averaged 11:17. In 2020, I'm already signed up to run the same 5k in January and a 10k in May. If I can increase my distance and speed without injuring myself, I might venture another marathon in late fall.
Writing
In 2010, my animation writing career sank like a cinderblock. No work, maybe one job interview. Yet, I was writing and selling short stories, jokes, essays, along with completing a novella, and putting up 338 blog posts with comments and everything. Alas, this was the high-water mark of blogging. In years to come, social media would gobble up the Web. At the same time, our money ran out and credit card debt swelled.
Wife Joy found only part-time work at irregular intervals. In 2011, I was hired by a group of marketers, writing copy for various products. I continued in their service for the next four years, occasionally snagging a courtesy union writing project, but, otherwise an unemployable man in his late 50s, early 60s.
By 2013, I'd written several drafts of short novels and decided to embrace the wonderful, overcrowded world of ebooks. I took an extended blog post of my 2011 jury duty experience and built it into an ebook. Since then, I've written several fiction and non-fiction books, novellas, and essays. The best seller is my autobiography on prostate cancer which has sold several hundred copies. In 2020, I hope to add an audio version to the ebook and softcover.
Joy landed a full-time job in 2016 as a technical writer. It paid pretty good. Around the same time, I retired from TV animation. A small annuity showed up in my bank account every month. In early 2018, Joy traded up, finding a position at a firm right near our home. For the first time in years, we didn't sweat the monthly bills and started paying down the fat blob of credit card debt we'd run up over the last five years. We bought new clothes and took vacations once again. How very posh.
Welcome 2020
So there you are. Ten rather interesting years, more down than up, but ending on a high note. I hope I'm still around to chronicle my path in the 20s. Blogs will probably be obsolete. I'll have to implant my notes directly into your mind with technology yet to be invented. Or else I'll just write a seasonal letter.
